Many organizations struggle to properly disinfect or sterilize medical and surgical equipment or devices that are not single-use disposable. It may seem like a small or isolated problem, but like any Achilles heel, it can result in major failure.

As infection prevention challenges evolve—such as emerging infectious organisms and resistance—healthcare organizations must focus on preventing hospital acquired infections and ensuring better patient outcomes. To achieve these goals, Infection Prevention professionals must be involved in all decisions affecting the delivery of patient care. Healthcare is ever-changing, and innovative approaches are critical as we look to the future of infection prevention.

Each year in the United States, there are about 300,000 surgical-site infections (infections that can occur after surgery in the part of the body where the surgery took place); patients with these infections are two to eleven times as likely to die as a result....